The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has announced that the printing of 73 million ballots for the upcoming May 12 midterm elections is approaching the halfway point. In a recent update, Comelec chairperson George Garcia revealed that 47.48% of the ballots, totaling 34,235,042, have been printed at the National Printing Office (NPO). Garcia expressed optimism about reaching the 50% mark in the coming days.
The printing efforts are split between service provider Miru Systems, which has produced 17,254,221 ballots, and the NPO, which has printed 16,980,821 ballots. There remains a significant number of ballots to be printed, with Miru needing to produce an additional 19,595,657 and the NPO tasked with printing 18,266,721 more.
Garcia anticipates that the entire printing process could be completed by early March, specifically targeting March 9 or March 10. Following the completion of printing, the focus will shift to the manual and machine verification of the ballots, a process that will continue until April 14.
The printing of ballots resumed in late January after a temporary halt due to Supreme Court orders related to cases involving nuisance candidates.